The eighteenth ”Pilgrimage for the Restoration” concluded Sunday at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville. It was a chilly early autumn day in upstate New York – the overcast sky gray and somber. Only now and then did patches of sunlight provide relief from the prevailing bleakness. This weather must have been challenging for those pilgrims who had made the three-day march.
Compared to its beginnings this pilgrimage has assumed an altogether smaller scale. Back in those earlier days most of the pilgrims – representing a broad spectrum of Catholic life, attached themselves on the final day to a small core group who had completed a lengthy trek through the upstate country. Several thousand people would assemble in the circular pilgrimage church. The ceremony, music and preaching were of a very high order. Whatever the weather, a warm and festive atmosphere prevailed. That spirit continued after the final liturgy when the pilgrims joined together to picnic on the shrine grounds or in the shrine’s dining hall.
All that has changed. Thanks to a number of recent changes to the day of the week, timing and organization of the pilgrimage, a much reduced – if more focused – group now makes up the pilgrimage march. I would guess only 200 – 250 participated. The program of the concluding day of the pilgrimage has also been drastically simplified. There is no longer the initial assembly at the Kateri shrine in Fonda (even though she was recently canonized!). The pilgrimage is no longer concluded by a solemn high mass but by a Missa Cantata (advertised as ”solemn holy mass” in the program). That mass no longer takes place in the great pilgrimage church but in the old 1894 Martyrs shrine – and even there many more could have been squeezed in. Since the pilgrimage now ends on Sunday, there is no longer a final, beautiful and quiet low mass the day after. The homily this year focused on personal and Marian piety in contrast to the former wide-ranging sermons, dealing not just with the piety of the faithful Christian but also with the great issues of the day in the life of the Church and of the country – the social and liturgical dimension of Catholicism. On September 22 of this year, due in part to the weather, the time of day (late in the afternoon) and the undoubted weariness of the pilgrims a more restrained mood prevailed. I myself could not stay, but I doubt that given the lateness of the day (the mass concluded after 5:30) and the growing darkness that the announced “agape” of the pilgrims recreated the festive spirit of prior days. Looking at this year’s pilgrimage, an outside observer would get the impression of a small, perhaps exclusive devotional group – not of a broad movement seeking the restoration of Church and society (as the Pilgrimage’s website still proclaims). Finally, apart from the pilgrimage, even the shrine itself seems to be a little worse for the wear – despite having a new saint.
The concluding mass of the pilgrimage no longer takes place in the huge main church of the shrine but in the 1894 martyr’s chapel (below). Of course the Victorian chapel has immensely greater “character” and appropriateness for the landscape compared to the circa 1930 circular monstrosity. It is, however, open to the elements.
And yet… the landscape surrounding the shrine is as magnificent as ever – especially under the glowering Autumn sky. The sight of several hundred pilgrims who have undertaken such an arduous journey and have completed it in prayer and good order is heartening. The ceremony of the liturgy, if abbreviated, was complete and dignified. Especially the music was of a very high order ( I do not have the details of the two groups of performers; a group of nuns and novices sang the propers while a second mixed choir sang very impressively settings of the mass, hymns and motets.)
(above) Schola of nuns rehearsing.
(Above and below) A priest of the Institute of Christ, Sovereign King celebrated the mass. (Perhaps a reader can supply his name and that of the preacher of the homily).
A handful gathered in the face of the growing darkness and cold of Autumn – was this year’s pilgrimage perhaps a metaphor for the situation of the Traditionalist movement in the Church today? Has the earlier elan that prevailed even in the reign of John Paul II dissipated? But does not the continuing sacrifice of the few witness to the indestructible hope of restoration – regardless of the prevailing headwinds? Whatever the weather, to speak with Shelley: “if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
UPDATE:
— The celebrant of holy Mass Sunday was First-Chaplain, Canon Andreas Hellmann, of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
— The priest who gave the sermon was Father James Doran, OMV, who is the Chaplain of the Company of St. René Goupil, an apostolate founded in 1998 to care for the needs of the pilgrims.
— The sisters who comprised one of the choirs Sunday are Franciscans of the Immaculata, from Bedford, Mass.
— The schola that sang polyphonic Sunday is the parish choir of St. Michael the Archangel in Scranton, directed by Mrs. Eileen Marie Hanisch.
(From the Pilgrimage Director, Mr. Greg Lloyd.)
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Good assessment. The annual pilgrimage is not what it once was. We have attended every year since 1998. Shooting from the hip, I would say about a thousand people participated in each of the first several years we attended. I always wanted to see larger numbers, but try as I may, getting people to go is like pulling teeth. I am convinced that the devil is in the details. I have come away each year spiritually rejuvenated and encouraged by the camaraderie of fellow traditional Catholics. It seemed a lot better when the concluding day with the final short walk was Sat. And yes, it was better when we started that day at the Kateri shrine instead of in the hay field. The route has now changed, with less public visibility of our Catholic manifestation. And people seem to be voting with their feet. But I will continue to go and I pray that it will be revived.
Tim is right, “the devil is in the details”. He lurks there precisely to scare people from looking into them, which is the only way to establish facts, instead of stringing impressions together.
I and other organizers grant — indeed, anticipated — that all the impressions you mention indicate a net loss for those who arrive the last day. But the same changes have given rise to a remarkable net gain overall, which is why the changes were made.
It is in the prolonged, often quiet times of pilgrimage when new conversions are experienced and old ones deepened; when the communion of the saints, penance, discipleship and reparation are revealed & experienced in dimensions never dreamt of in the comfort of one’s home (or when out for a short walk on a Saturday afternoon); when vocations to the priesthood & religious life — and not a few sacred matrimonies, too — are sometimes discovered, often discerned and always deepened. On the pilgrimage blog there is, for example, a photo of a bishop with some cloistered nuns whose vocations, thank God, were found (or the fires fanned) on the ‘long’ way to Auriesville. There are currently three seminarians (far as I know) at Our Lady of Guadalupe seminary whose vocations, they say, were kindled on the days of pilgrimage. After a decade, another young pilgrim of the three-day jaunt returned two years ago — from his mission in Africa, to give the sermon at the final Mass.
I wish, dear Stuart, you had interviewed me before writing. Of course there is one kind of taste that likes chocolate and another vanilla. In that there is hardly matter for disagreement. But there is another taste that is the refinement of judgment. Had you asked why we organizers made the decisions which have changed the flavor of the last day, your post might have enticed someone to give the other a try, and in turn lead to saving more souls — even while losing more soles — in the footsteps of the martyrs.
Respectfully & gratefully yours in Christ,
Greg Lloyd
Thanks for your encouraging words Greg. If the route changes have have resulted in a net gain overall, then mission accomplished. Just wish there were more people attending who could be benefiting by the graces and camaraderie. Like I say, trying to get people to attend is like pulling teeth. They don’t know what they’re missing.
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